Eish, I'm not sure that Nightjar is very identifiable but I'm curious why you say Fiery-necked? I just thought the chest looks very grey for Fiery-necked which might point towards Rufous-cheeked. I'm saying "might" because I really can't see enough on the bird to ID it as anything and Fiery-necked would be the more likely candidate for that region.

I have to say that there are few things that irk me like seeing a Nightjar roadkill in Kruger (and I've seen disturbingly many). There is one reason and one reason only why a Nightjar would turn up dead on a KNP road and that is because someone was speeding on that road and seeing as Nightjars are typically active at night, chances are that it was a parks official who killed that bird.

If a visitor to a park had killed an animal or bird due to speeding I would want him to be barred from entry into any of the SANParks for the rest of his life. But what do you do when it's a park official? Aaarrrggghh!!!!

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel." -Homer Simpson

deefstes wrote:I have to say that there are few things that irk me like seeing a Nightjar roadkill in Kruger (and I've seen disturbingly many). There is one reason and one reason only why a Nightjar would turn up dead on a KNP road and that is because someone was speeding on that road and seeing as Nightjars are typically active at night, chances are that it was a parks official who killed that bird.

If a visitor to a park had killed an animal or bird due to speeding I would want him to be barred from entry into any of the SANParks for the rest of his life. But what do you do when it's a park official? Aaarrrggghh!!!!

Thanks Deefstes, JoelR and RJ for the id's!About the roadkill, my thought is that it is Sanpark staff. You should see those guys coming into Maroela camp at night to drop the people from the nightdrives! And in the Caracal threat I see people complaining about several caracal roadkills at Orpen too.Overall, people are speeding far to much in Kruger. Take the dead lioncub roadkill this week for instance! These people should be asked to leave the park immediately!

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This bird is a member of the nightjar family and as like all of its other brothers and cousins we have here in SA it is very hard to ID this species from its cousins and brothers The Key ID factor of this family is to look at the tail and wing feather patterns, this will generally give a lead as to what the bird is. One of the easiest ID points for this bird is its call. Resembling the words "Good lord deliver us" this bird produces one of the most familiar sounds of the bush.

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ID is soo difficult...so BATMAD what I suggest is go to an area like the Cape where they are just about the only nightjar species present and you will have an easier time idiing it compared to say when in the KNP!